Of Tiger, Tolkien and Sam Alexis

An explanation for the nomenclature, we are told by the Woods camp, is coming. Exactly when, will be up to Tiger and Elin, the proud parents of Sam Alexis Woods, their newborn daughter.
 
Until that time, everybody will have to wait and wonder at the significance of the first name, Sam, and the middle name, Alexis.
 
Meanwhile, strictly by coincidence we assume because there was no mention of Woods in the story, The Wall Street Journal ran a long piece in its Friday editions with the headline “The Baby-Name Business.”
 
Among other things, the WSJ reported there have been 80 baby-name books published in just the last three years. More than 100 web sites exist for the purpose of helping parents name their children.
 
There are even baby-name consultants who charge up to $350 for a package that can include three half-hour phone calls. In Sweden and Denmark the government reserves the right to reject baby-names officials think might subject the child to ridicule. Names turned down by Big Brother in Sweden include Veranda, Ikea and Metallica. Babynamesworld.com, according to WSJ, draws up to 600,000 visitors a day.
 
No way of knowing at the moment if Tiger and Elin consulted anybody outside of family and friends before settling on Sam Alexis. The only safe assumption is, if they did, they were advised not to name the baby Phil.
 
Who knew baby-naming was a cottage industry of such size and volume? And who, for that matter, knew people were paying such close attention to the selection of the name of the first born child of the No. 1 golfer in the world?
 
The following is the text from an E-mail I received from a woman named Stephanie Simmons, who claims to have an insight into why “Sam” and why “Alexis”. Part of me wants to dismiss her theory out of hand. Part of me was fascinated reading her E-mail. And part of me was convinced I had to share her message with the other loyal readers of this column. There are, after all, a large majority of readers who can’t ever get enough Tiger Woods in this space.
 
The E-Mail from Ms. Simmons:
 
“You are probably sick of hearing from me about now, but I wanted to share this theory on the name of Tiger’s baby, and I actually got the idea from Tiger himself.
 
“On Thursday’s press conference (at Oakmont), I heard Tiger say something that was oddly worded. The question involved golf and making the cut, and Tiger said something to the effect that ‘it’s only golf and not ‘the end of all things.’ That immediately caught my ear. No, not because Tiger was saying to the world of rabid golfers that there was something much more important than golf, but it was the expression. I was watching the conference with my mother, a retired school teacher, and my daughter, the recently graduated junior golfer. I thought to myself it was odd that he said that, and my mother commented, ‘Tiger must be an avid reader.’ I said, ‘You caught that, too?! Tiger must be a Tolkien fan.’